Articles

Looking Back on 2025 at the Max Bell School

Max Bell School of Public Policy — Fri, 19 Dec 2025 19:42:11 +0000

Looking back on the School's 2025 milestones

Highlights from the Fall 2025 Guest Speaker Series

Bela Sullivan — Mon, 15 Dec 2025 19:41:10 +0000

As part of our commitment to enriching the learning experience for our MPP students, we bring in a diverse group of guest speakers each semester to share their perspectives from across the public policy landscape. Through informal lunchtime sessions held between classes, these speakers create space for candid conversation, allowing students to engage directly with real-world policy challenges and build meaningful connections beyond the classroom.

Nick King on How to Be Skeptical Without Becoming Cynical

Bela Sullivan — Sun, 14 Dec 2025 14:05:00 +0000

Understanding where knowledge comes from, and how it is used, has become one of the defining challenges of modern society. From the spread of public health data to the rise of artificial intelligence, decisions that shape people’s lives depend on information that is often complex, opaque, and value laden. For Nick King, core faculty member at the Max Bell School and Associate Professor in the Department of Equity, Ethics and Policy, examining how knowledge is produced, trusted, and applied is central to how we govern responsibly.

Tony Keller on the Future of Canadian Immigration

Keith Andre Baybayon — Wed, 10 Dec 2025 16:38:13 +0000

Canada’s immigration system was once regarded as a quiet success story, with public confidence and support across the country. In recent years, shifts in policy decisions and rapid population growth have weakened the stability. In the 2025 Ģ��Ƶ Max Bell Lectures, Globe and Mail columnist Tony Keller examines how Canada moved away from the foundations that once made its approach work, and what it will take to restore the balance.

What Al and Seth Wish They Knew Before Starting the MPP

Max Bell School of Public Policy — Thu, 04 Dec 2025 16:36:20 +0000

When Al and Seth arrived at the Max Bell School, they had more than first day nerves – they weren’t convinced they belonged. With backgrounds in pharmacy and engineering respectively, they expected to be surrounded by classmates with political science degrees, government experience, or years of policy reading under their belts. Instead, they quickly discovered a cohort far more varied than the one they had imagined.

Small town to big city - visiting Ottawa from PEI

Victoria Gibbs — Thu, 13 Nov 2025 19:54:21 +0000

MPP student Victoria Gibbs reflects on the 2025 class trip to visit Parliament from the perspective of growing up in PEI.

MPP students engage with policy leaders in Ottawa

Bela Sullivan — Thu, 13 Nov 2025 19:05:23 +0000

Over four days in Ottawa, Max Bell School students stepped inside Canada’s key institutions to learn how policy takes shape. Through meetings with political leaders, senior public servants, and journalists, students gained firsthand insight into the realities of policymaking and leadership in the nation’s capital.

Meet Our MPPs: Elijah Maubert

Bela Sullivan — Thu, 13 Nov 2025 18:31:22 +0000

Elijah Maubert MPP'25 on knowing your why: advice for future Max Bell MPP students

A Solid, Unspectacular Budget – With a Few Red Flags

Chris Ragan — Wed, 05 Nov 2025 19:33:22 +0000

Budget 2025 has a very different tone from most of the Trudeau government’s budgets. There is much less talk of middle-class Canadians and their plight, far less emphasis on the need to implement new social programs and expand existing ones, and less attention paid to environmental concerns and issues of identity politics.

Lessons from Vincent Rigby on National Security and the Navigating Public Service

Bela Sullivan — Tue, 23 Sep 2025 17:13:56 +0000

After advising prime ministers and shaping defence policy, Vincent Rigby now teaches students to see national security as a living field shaped by new global realitie, from climate change to COVID-19.

Climate at a Crossroads | Watch the Videos

Keith Andre Baybayon — Thu, 16 Oct 2025 17:01:11 +0000

The third annual Ecofiscal Conference, hosted by the Max Bell School of Public Policy and The Walrus, explored how information integrity influences climate action and public trust during periods of rapid technological change. The videos provided on the page are recordings from Climate at a Crossroads.

Gisèle Yasmeen on Challenges and Opportunities for Food System Transformation

Gisèle Yasmeen — Wed, 15 Oct 2025 18:43:01 +0000

A number of voices are converging in an urgent call for global action to fundamentally reform the world’s food system, given climbing rates of food insecurity, diet-related disease, and environmental degradation due to food production[i] [ii] [iii]. As analysts have shown, the costs of the global food system outweigh the total value produced.

Meet Our MPPs: Juma Omala ‘22

Bela Sullivan — Wed, 01 Oct 2025 17:22:49 +0000

When Juma Omala MPP’22 thinks back to his early career in rural Kenya, he remembers the moments that revealed how deeply intertwined health, education, and economic opportunity are. Through his work with BoldStep Initiative, a youth-led organization he helped run, and other public health projects in Kenya and the United States, he witnessed firsthand how proposals often stalled.

The Immigration Debate Within Immigrant Communities

Aftab Ahmed — Thu, 25 Sep 2025 20:44:37 +0000

MPP alumnus Aftab Ahmed '23 took time to listen to the viewpoints of immigrants in his community in Toronto.

Neil Bouwer: Bringing 30+ Years of Public Service Experience into the Classroom

Bela Sullivan — Tue, 23 Sep 2025 17:12:18 +0000

With over three decades of experience in Canada’s public service, Neil Bouwer brings an unmatched depth of insight to his role as Visiting Professor of Practice at the Max Bell School of Public Policy.